SEEING RED ABOUT ‘PINKS’
I agree "Pinks" is a very poor reflection of drag racing. Drag racing has been trying since the beginning to separate from street racing, and this program is doing everything to show they are the same.
I wonder how many young kids see that show and think that's how you are supposed to act at the track.
I have bracket raced since 1979 and only two (2) people have ever gotten "in my face" and both of them were dead wrong and didn't understand the premise of racing ("You cheat, you hit your brakes before the finish line if you’re leading!" was one and the other thought the first MPH cone was the finish line, which they crossed first).
Bill Schmidt
Olney, MD
PINKS! BAHH!!!
I used to hang around guys that raced for pink slips. There were no handicaps. No two out of three. If you didn't think that what you had was good enough to beat the other guy, you just didn't race him.
Bry Schmidt
Fresno, CA
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT?
HELL NO!!! Pinks is an insult to real drag racing. Pinks is a bunch of jive talking clowns who wouldn't know a drag race if they saw one.
Jorge Meister
California
If drag racing goes to the 1/8th mile, I'm done. That is like watching paint dry.
TRY THE ‘OFF’ BUTTON
The show "Pinks" is about the dumbest thing I've seen in motorsports. It’s a show about stupid people and their cars. If they are stupid enough to invest a ton of money in a performance car and just give it away because they lose, they deserve to lose and nobody else should have to suffer with their ignorance. At least the TV version can be turned off and it is. It would bring NHRA down if they wasted their time and energy with this show.
Kevin Boyer
Belvidere, IL
CZAR BERSERKO?
Berserko is aimed in the right direction. Bob knows more about races and fans than most.
Bernie Agaman
Eatontown, NJ
CLOWN CARS?
Berserko Bob's 21st Century drag racing ideas for Sportsman racers ARE completely "BERSERKO". These kinds of changes would put the final nails in the proverbial sportman's "coffin". That would accomplish what NHRA really wants though...a WWE, monster truck, Joie Chitwood type venue. Send in the clowns!!
Jack Issi
Pittsburgh, PA
FROM THE VOICE OF DRAG RACING
Just read "Bezerko's" thoughts on what the future might bring to drag racing and I pretty much agree. My additional input is that Top Fuel and Funny Car should be combined into one Top Eliminator category.
Anyway ... waiting to read the responses to Bob's "Czarist" comments.
Just read (Jeff Utterback’s) “writer’s block” treatise in the latest DRO. Your comments on the untimely death of Eric Medlen were totally appropriate. It’s just sad. I never met Eric but upon hearing the
news I cried. And now Force is on a mission to fix it. That’s good.
Since you’re the nostalgia guy, how about doing a column on the history of major safety improvements and how they ALWAYS seem to follow somebody dying. There’s a famous saying, “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” You can only harness a certain level of rapidly growing energy before it becomes chaotic and hurts people. There are people out there who can help the sport get ahead of this technologically. Somehow we need to find and employ them to do so.
Finally – as concerns SIR. A new group of local business people and ex-drag racers have signed a long-term lease for the place that will allow them to seriously upgrade the facility. Such has already begun. During the recent Tucson Dragway Reunion six new members were inducted to the Arizona Drag Racing Hall of Fame. Neat guys, from several competition categories, that raced hard in “the day.”
Keep writing!
Jon Lundberg, VODR (Ret.)
Oro Valley, AZ